The Union Young Investigator Prize

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The Union Young Investigator Prize

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The Union Young Investigator Prize was established in 2011 to acknowledge a researcher for work in lung health published in the past five years leading up to the awarding year’s Union World Conference. He/she was aged 35 years or younger at the time of the publications.

Nominations are paused for this prize until further notice.

The award is presented at the Union World Conference on Lung Health and consists of a full fellowship to attend the conference (including full delegate badge, travel, accommodation and per diem), US$ 2,000 and a certificate.

  • Honorees may request that the fellowship portion of the award be used for a delegate who would not otherwise be able to attend the conference.
  • Honorees unable to attend the conference may designate a colleague to accept the award on their behalf.

Recipients

2020: Dr Leonardo Martinez, an infectious disease epidemiologist, was recognised for his exceptional research focusing on understanding population and individual level approaches to early paediatric TB and the epidemiology of TB in other high risk and neglected groups.

2019: Dr Gustavo Velásquez, an infectious disease physician and clinical researcher based at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, both in Boston, USA. Dr Velásquez has been devoted to developing safe, tolerable, and effective treatment regimens for drug-susceptible and drug-resistant TB.

2019: Dr Stephanus Malherbe is lead clinician of the department of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, whose pioneering work in clinical operations for TB biomarker and immunology research has been widely published.

2018: Dr Lorenzo Guglielmetti was honoured for his impressive body of research on optimised treatment for drug resistant TB (DR-TB), enhancing the evidence generated by the early availability of bedaquiline and delamanid.

2017: Dr Alberto Garcia-Basteiro was recognised for his efforts and success in revealing the huge TB burden in Mozambique.

2016: Dr Rein Houben (United Kingdom) is an infectious disease epidemiologist. He was recognised for his research focusing on LTBI and structural drivers of TB. 

2015: Dr Jason Andrews (United States) is an infectious diseases physician and epidemiologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. His research focuses on understanding TB transmission dynamics in high-burden settings, and current projects include examining drivers of tuberculosis in South African townships and Brazilian prisons. 

2014: Dr Grant Theron (South Africa) is a Senior Scientist in the Lung Infection and Immunity Unit in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. His research has focused on the design and field evaluation of diagnostics for tuberculosis and drug resistance. 

2013: No prize was awarded. 

2012: Dr David Dowdy (USA) is an epidemiologist and practicing general internist whose primary body of work involves modeling the impact and cost-effectiveness of diagnostic interventions for tuberculosis, with a particular focus on developing methods for practical tools that can be utilized by decision-makers. 

2011: Dr Keren Middelkoop (South Africa) clinician and senior investigator at the Desmond Tutu HIV Research Centre, the University of Cape Town, was honoured for her work in the epidemiology of TB and HIV and the impact of HIV and antiretroviral therapy on patients with TB.